No plans to look at installing solar panels on Fingal car parks anytime soon, council chief says

On a sunny recent afternoon, Green Party Councillor David Healy rolled up to Baldoyle Racecourse Park, next to the Baldoyle Bay, on a matte black bike. 

The council is building a new community centre here, as part of the broader development of the park.  

So at the moment, this part of the park is blocked off, metal fencing encircling it. It has recently been paved, and will eventually reopen as the community centre’s car park, Healy says.

The paving has intentional gaps to allow for plants to grow beneath parked cars, Healy says. That will help stabilise the land and absorb rainfall to help drainage, he said.

But he sees another opportunity in the car park. 

Healy also wants the council to capture the sun that beats down on this car park on fine days with solar panels, he says. In fact, he’d like to see the council install solar panels above not only this car park, but others too. 

No, the solar panels wouldn’t take away parking spots, Healy says. The way he envisions it, they’d be on raised structures above the cars. 

Solar panels have been installed above car parks across Europe. And Wicklow County Council has done it.  

But when Healy raised the idea in a motion at the council’s monthly meeting on 14 April, the council’s chief executive AnnMarie Farrelly said she didn’t have the resources, or the budget to pursue the project this year. Maybe she’d look at it in 2026, she said.

Cross-party support

Healy’s motion at the April monthly council meeting called on Farrelly to carry out a feasibility study on placing solar panels above some of the 5,000-plus off-street council parking areas. 

“This is the low-hanging fruit of dealing with climate change,” Healy said at the meeting. The cost of installing photovoltaic solar panels has been falling, and the panels are appearing on farms and houses in Fingal, Healy said. 

There’s no need for an extensive survey, there are some car parks that are obvious spots to install solar, he said, like the Seatown Car Park. “We have no real reason to hold back on this, it’s not a large budget to do this survey.”

Every other councillor who spoke at the meeting supported the motion. “I think a feasibility study or test case or something should be done on this and find out if it’s a runner or not a runner,” said Councillor Tom O’Leary, of Fine Gael.

Although, he said he’d rather see multi-storey housing built on the Seatown Car Park site, than solar panels put in over the parking spots, O’Leary said. Maybe the Skerries Mills or Red Island car parks would be better choices, he said.  

Energy costs “pose quite a threat to us in terms of how we manage our annual budget”, said Fianna Fáil Councillor Eoghan O’Brien. 

“We shouldn’t just be looking at these kinds of solutions as the costs,” he said. “It’s the savings in the medium and long term that we should be focused on.”

The fact that the project isn’t in the council’s climate action plan “is on us as members for not raising it”, said Labour Party Councillor Brian McDonagh, the mayor. But “from a financial point of view alone, it would be a good idea”.

It’s definitely possible to do, said Labour Party Councillor James Humphries. “Wicklow has a solar canopy over their car park.”

Wicklow’s car park solar panels

Three or four years ago, Wicklow County Council installed solar panels above part of the car park at its County Buildings. 

They started the project to meet their climate goals, said Wicklow County Council’s Regional Energy Manager Declan Keogh, by email on Monday. 

“The public sector is mandated to lead by example in addressing climate change,” said Keogh. “The Climate Action Plan 2025 sets out the ambitious targets the public sector must meet to deliver on by 2030.”

So, Keogh said, the Wicklow County Council Energy Team came up with the idea to use the space to generate renewable solar electricity to power the building.

He said Wicklow council’s solar panels collect “285,000kWh per year, which is the anticipated solar electricity yield”.

Healy says he wants Fingal to carry out a feasibility study, to do basically, this same project.

Lots of precedent

There’s a cost up front, but solar systems can pay for themselves within five years, says Conall Bolger, chief executive of Irish Solar Energy Association.  So “we'd be surprised if budget was a constraint”, he said. 

Actually, Keogh, at Wicklow County Council, said there was no up-front capital cost to the council for their car-park solar panels. 

“The council decided to use private sector operators to design, build, operate and sell the electricity to the council,” he said. 

Adding solar panels to car parks is one way that many countries are working to meet their climate goals, said Bolger of the Irish Solar Energy Association. So, "Globally, solar carports are an increasing trend.” 

“In France, the government mandated that parking areas over a certain size must have solar shelters,” Bolger said. “In the UK, an island with a more similar climate to ourselves, local authorities have been actively installing car ports since at least 2016.” 

Michael Malone, the solar energy editor of Energy Efficiency Ireland, a renewable energy information website, also said Healy’s idea to install solar panels on car parks is reasonable. 

“There is clearly huge potential for car parks owned by local councils to be kitted out with solar panels, and the benefits are enormous,” Malone said.

Wind turbines are generally more efficient, he said. “However solar panels are much cheaper on a smaller scale to install, and also much more feasible in urban areas.” 

“There are thousands of meters of roof space on council buildings and car parks and we should be looking at installing solar wherever it is possible,” he said.

He pointed to similar initiatives in the UK. “In Portsmouth, England, a massive solar canopy over a car park owned by the city council was recently completed – capable of generating enough electricity to power around 1,300 homes,” he said.

Keogh, in Wicklow, said that they didn’t have any pushback during the process of setting up their car-park solar project, and all the feedback has been positive. 

Nope

Despite councillors’ support for Healy’s motion at the April monthly meeting, Farrelly, the council’s chief executive said she’s no plans to pursue the project this year. 

“I do appreciate the savings that there is here with regards to this and from a climate action perspective,” Farrelly said.  

“However I just want to make clear I’m not doing a feasibility study this year, I don’t have the resources to do it, and I don’t have it in the budget.” But “it’s certainly something that can be considered for sometime next year”, she said. 

Said Labour Party Councillor Brian McDonagh, the mayor: “Thankfully you’re part of a big team, someone else might choose to take it on.” 

Well, whether it’s this year the council studies the issue or next, “The sooner we can find the available capacity to do the work the better,” said Healy, the Green Party councillor.